New ‘university’ moving into the former Deva Cafe space, but expect coffee, not classes
Get ready to enroll in Penny University, where you won’t find any classwork but plenty of coffee and community cheer.
A new coffee shop will move into the longtime space of Deva Cafe in downtown Modesto. But, if you’re a Modesto Certified Farmers Market regular, you’ll already recognize its owners. Modesto friends and business partners Auni Slatten, 36, and Laurel Rehkopf, 31, plan to open Penny University in the J Street site this summer.
The two women and their booth have been regulars at the downtown market since May, when they launched the pop-up coffee business. But all along, they’ve wanted a brick-and-mortar spot downtown.
When the Deva Cafe closed after almost 30-years in business last fall, Slatten and Rehkopf saw an opportunity to turn their coffee shop dreams into reality.
“(Years ago,) we both realized we shared a dream of opening a cafe, but I never thought I could do it by myself,” Rehkopf said. “But the more we talked about it, the more I could see this actually happening.”
Together, they hope to turn the space into a modern take on the name. Starting in 17th-century England, so-called penny universities were gathering places for men to learn from one another. These coffee shops provided access to education, reading materials and more for one penny, or the cost of a cup of coffee.
Slatten and Rehkopf liked the idea of a community gathering and learning place, and took the name for their venture. But they wanted to open the concept to all.
“(Penny universities) would bring the community into a gathering space where they could learn from each other,” Slatten said. “So we loved that idea and also wanted to honor the memory of Deva in this space.”
Neither woman is a stranger to Modesto, and in Slatten’s case to downtown coffee culture. She worked at fellow J Street cafe Preservation Coffee & Tea for eight years, serving as its manager the last five. Meanwhile, Rehkopf brings her technical skills from working in IT for Foster Farms for four years, combining their areas of expertise for the endeavor.
The pair originally planned to start working on their cafe in 2020, but the pandemic and its related fallout pushed that back. This winter, they’ve been getting the old Deva space ready and designing its new look. They plan to start renovation work inside the 2,200-square-foot space in the coming weeks.
Besides a full coffee bar with specialty hot and cold espresso drinks, the new cafe will serve food and offer beer and wine. The women have selected North Carolina-based specialty coffee roasters Black & White for their beans.
Food originally wasn’t part of their plan, but they inherited much of the fully functional Deva kitchen and plan to put it to good use. It will be open from early morning until evening, with a menu of mostly light breakfast and lunch fare. They want to make all their own syrups for their coffees and create their foods from scratch when possible. Other specialty items will be sourced locally, at least to start.
They plan to build out a larger bar, which will stretch into the long main room. They also want to create a back wall bookcase in the secondary room, which had been used as overflow seating. The look of the place will be Victorian era meets contemporary aesthetics, they said.
As the women work on turning their cafe dreams into reality, farmers market fans should take heart. You still will be able to get your caffeinated kicks from them each week. They’ve already signed on to stay at the downtown market for the year.
As for any lingering confusion about their name, Slatten said while they’ve had some people ask if they’re actually a school, the explanation is always a good conversation starter. Once open, they hope to be the place that starts many more conversations and collaborations for years to come.
This story was originally published March 15, 2023 at 12:56 PM.
